Review: The Assassin’s Blade by Sarah J. Maas

Publisher: Bloomsbury Children’s Books
Release date: March 4, 2014
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 1408851989
Pages: 430
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Celaena Sardothien owes her reputation to Arobynn Hamel. He gave her a home at the Assassins’ Guild and taught her the skills she needed to survive.

Arobynn’s enemies stretch far and wide – from Adarlan’s rooftops and its filthy dens, to remote islands and hostile deserts. Celaena is duty-bound to hunt them down. But behind her assignments lies a dark truth that will seal her fate – and cut her heart in two forever…

MY THOUGHTS

The Assassin’s Blade is a bind-up of 5 prequel novellas that were released in electronic format prior to the release of Throne of Glass. These novellas take place before the events in Throne of Glass and give a lot of great background on Celaena’s past. Throne of Glass alludes to Celaena’s past a lot but I don’t think it’s important to have read The Assassin’s Blade before Throne of Glass because I think Throne of Glass gives a better introduction to the world than The Assassin’s Blade does. I actually read the novellas after reading Throne of Glass and I would probably recommend this reading order because I had a better grasp of the world by reading Throne of Glass first. Here is my review of Throne of Glass.

All five of the novellas in The Assassin’s Blade were great. I enjoyed it more than I enjoyed Throne of Glass. I rated each of the novellas 4-5 out of 5 stars. The Assassin and the Desert was my favourite of the 5 novellas, but I thought every one of them were enjoyable. I loved a lot of the characters in the book and I thought the stories were great. We also get to see different sides of Celaena that I don’t think we get to see in Throne of Glass. She’s strong and fierce but also tender and has a really good heart. It was great to be able to see more of her. My favourite character in these novellas was definitely Sam. Why bother with Dorian and Chaol when you have Sam? Sam and Celaena’s relationship was adorable and just… the best.

I loved the writing in these novellas. The stories are so action-packed and fast-paced. I really appreciate that Sarah J. Maas doesn’t shy away from all the gory and graphic bits. Everything is described in such great detail that I can see everything in my head. What I probably liked best about the book is the format. Even though The Assassin’s Blade is a bind-up, these novellas read more like a novel. They appear chronologically in the book and each novella follows on from the previous one so smoothly. There is a little bit of a lapse in time between novellas but it almost reads as if the story has just continued where it left off. I think it is worthwhile to get The Assassin’s Blade rather than each novella separately, and I’d definitely recommend reading them in the order they appear in the book.